


Sister to Brother

by TheonSugden



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Mentions of Sexual Assault, Victoria gets a little violent with cake batter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 07:58:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3480443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheonSugden/pseuds/TheonSugden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victoria tells Robert a few home truths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sister to Brother

**Author's Note:**

> For people who don't watch all of the show - the Alicia part of this is a character named Alicia who was sexually assaulted by Robert's stepson Lachlan. Robert, in spite of doubting Lachlan's innocence, is still supporting him so as not to lose his money and status.

Robert stopped into the kitchen to check on Victoria. He often took her for granted, just as he’d done when she’d been a little girl, but after…after what happened with Andy, he wasn’t as blase about it.

Health and safety violations be damned, she was trying her best with cake batter as Adam stood behind her with his head on her chin, rubbing his fingers up and down her forearms.

Victoria wasn’t talking to him or to Adam. The few times she looked up at Robert, he had the feeling she was imagining using him to sharpen her butcher knife.

"Hey there silent partner…guess you really are my silent partner…got two silent partners…" Adam muttered to both of them, mostly to himself.

"Shut up," Victoria grimaced, composure breaking ever-so-slightly when Adam kissed her neck.

"You seen Aaron around?" Adam asked suddenly. 

Robert tried to ignore the churning in his stomach at the mention of Aaron’s name, the desire to ask them every little thing Aaron had said and done, how he looked, that he shouldn’t be left alone after…

"It’s just he’s done a runner. Lotsa runners. He runs all the time. Leaves me in the dust. Vic says I should keep up with him so I won’t get fat, but secretly I think she likes a little junk in my trunk…"

He kissed her neck again, managing to work a squeal out of her. Robert had never seen anyone manage to squeal while glaring until now.

Robert’s first thought was to turn a hose on Adam until he ran out of the room, but the second, the one he tried to push back along with the dozens of other regrets he never let himself wallow in, was how much he wished Aaron’s arms could be around him that way, strong and secure. The way Aaron, silly, naive, wonderful, big-hearted Aaron, had wanted it to be.

If only life was that simple. If only he hadn’t been so close to getting Chrissie and the money. If only Katie hadn’t…

” _OWW_!” he shouted, thoughts yanked out of his head along with a few hairs as Victoria pulled at the quiff above his forehead. “What was that…”

"It’s for bein’ such a flippin’ coward instead of being a man!"

"Right, that’s misogynist," Robert replied, stepping back before she pushed him further into premature balding. "And if this is about what I think it is…"

"Course it is, Robert! Alicia’s not me best mate, but she’s a good person. She was there for Andy when Sarah was sick and if it’d been up to her she still would be. What Chrissie said about her…"

Robert couldn’t look her in the eye.

"I…I know what she said was wrong, Vic. I didn’t agree with…"

"Don’t you see, Rob? That makes what you’re doin’ even worse!"

Victoria had her arms folded, death glare on the ready, which Robert knew meant he’d never win. And in this case he wasn’t even sure he wanted to win. She was right. No amount of guilt or clever one-liners would change that. 

Robert saw Adam as a clueless hanger-on, but he was grateful that even Adam knew when death via pots and pans was on the horizon.

He stepped between Robert and Victoria, putting his arms out like something he’d watched in a cop show.

"Just listen, alright? Vic’s totally right about Alicia, but…now wait Vic, put the knife back down…we gotta think about Robert’s side o’this too."

Victoria screamed enough to where Robert was worried Chas would come down and taser him now that she had an excuse.

"You’re only taking his side ‘cos he writes your checks, Adam!"

Robert winced, but the wince turned into a full ‘o’ face when Adam fired back.

"Oh yeah? So next time Old Man White asks you to cater for some fancy ‘do, I guess you’re gonna say no, right? Otherwise you’re a flamin’ hypocrite."

Victoria couldn’t reply. Her face was distorted enough to where Robert wondered if her mouth had somehow been removed while he wasn’t looking.

He got his answer when she gathered a handful of cake batter and pushed it into Adam’s red face.

"What the fuck you playin’ at!" Adam mumble-shouted through a mouthful of goo.

"Go wash up," she ordered, advancing on Robert with the bowl. 

_"Not the face!"_

He covered said face with his hands in abject terror.

The contents were soon dumped on his brand new Italian shoes.

He would have preferred the face.

"Those are brand new…custom-made Italian leather!!!" he yelled, knowing how silly he must have sounded, but not caring.

"Take it outta Lachlan’s legal fees," she spat, throwing a washrag at a still disoriented Adam and leaning against the table for a pout as he left them alone.

Robert wanted to tell his sister how much he’d sacrificed to get where he was now, how she’d never understand, how none of this was his fault, but he knew she wouldn’t want to hear it. And if it sounded half as weak out of his mouth as it did in his head, he couldn’t blame her.

Instead of arguing, he grabbed the mop and bucket and began cleaning the floor.

"Marlon’ll slip and break his boney arse…" he muttered as he made quick work of the floor. "Almost want it to happen…take some pictures for special occasions…"

When he was done, he looked up to see his kid sister staring at him, snarl turned to smug smile, hands on hips.

"You see, Rob? That’s you. Muck like us."

"It’s just a mop and a bucket, Vic."

She shook her head. 

"No it’s not! When you first came back you treated us like you were on a royal tour. Your clothes, your hair…it was Downton Abbey, not The Dales. Look at ya now."

He looked down at his jeans and black leather jacket, tempted to rattle off the price tags for her, but knowing better.

"Even your hair…it’s the same hair I used to grab onto when you tried to eat the last biscuits in the tin."

Robert huffed.

"I never did that…you were just a brat. Still are."

She rolled her eyes, trying to fight a shared laugh with her brother.

"I may be a brat, but I know who I am. You’re like me and Andy, and that’s somethin’ to be proud of, Robert. And you know it too…whether you admit it or not."

He had a million replies on the tip of his tongue, about how he’d never been like them, he’d never been good enough for his dad or the village, how he’d finally found a new life like the one he’d dreamed of in that punishing, cramped, rotting farmhouse all those years.

Somehow, they never left his mouth. Not the way they had so easily when he’d first got back.

Victoria’s face softened, the way it did only when she knew she’d won.

"I’m sorry ‘bout the shoes," she allowed, genuine regret in her singsong voice as Robert handed her the mop.

"Don’t worry about it. Wanted a new pair anyway."

"No, I mean, it’d take me about 50 years to pay ‘em off, but I can…"

He was more forceful this time.

"It’s fine. And…you’re right about Alicia. You always know how to tell me what I don’t want to hear. That’s why I missed you so much."

They might have hugged, or some other awkward sibling sitcom moment, but Adam bounded back in like the overeager puppy that he was, yanking Victoria forward and swatting her on the bottom.

Victoria’s second squeal of the day made Robert know it was his time to go.

He took one last look back before he left, imagining himself and Aaron in their place, chasing Aaron around a kitchen, laughing and fighting and making up.

In spite of himself, he smiled.


End file.
